


Heart's A Mess

by red_b_rackham



Series: If I Didn't Care (Unrelated Harvey/Donna Fics) [4]
Category: Suits (US TV)
Genre: Episode Tag, Episode s04e16: Not Just A Pretty Face, F/M, Friendship, Humor, JUST KISS ALREADY, Louis Litt (cameo/background), Moderate language, Mutual Pining, Rachel Has Had Enough, Rachel and Mike Are Good Friends, Rachel is a Good Bro, The Ol' Stuff Your Friends Into A Confined Space To Get Confessions Trope, UA, i don't know what to tell you, if these two are not your otp for this show, only a litle angst !!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 13:21:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15244284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/red_b_rackham/pseuds/red_b_rackham
Summary: “I’m Louis’s Girl Friday now.” Donna starts typing, as if this is not one of the most Earth-shattering things Rachel has ever heard. Or, the one where Harvey and Donna are being idiots, so Rachel decides to take matters into her own hands. (Oneshot)





	Heart's A Mess

**Author's Note:**

> Okay guys, HE TOLD HER HE LOVES HER BUT SHE’S LEAVING and I can’t even. Note that this is *not* a boatload of angst like the other H/D fics I’ve done so far (I’m still veeeeeery tempted to do that, but I desperately need to get back to watching. XD) so, yay? Also, minor language warning because wow, they say “goddamn” a LOT on this show, among other things. Set just after the Season 4 finale.
> 
> Lastly, MAJOR thanks to my ever perfect beta [stars_inthe_sky](http://archiveofourown.org/users/stars_inthe_sky/pseuds/stars_inthe_sky), who edited even though she doesn't watch Suits AND put up with me struggling to write despite being super, duper burnt out post-semester.

At first, nothing seems amiss. Rachel stows her things and turns on her computer. Then Mike rushes into her office with wide eyes and she knows something’s happened.

“Donna’s not at her desk,” he says.

“Um, okay?”

“No, Rachel,” Mike lowers his voice and stares at her. “She’s not _at_ her desk. Her stuff isn’t there.”

She opens her mouth to say that maybe Donna’s running late, but Donna is _never_ late. One time, the subway broke down, and she _still_ somehow beat almost everyone to work. When Rachel had asked how, Donna had shrugged and simply said, “I’m Donna.”

“I’m sure everything’s fine,” Rachel murmurs, but Mike looks as unconvinced as she feels. She’d gone home thinking the huge Liberty Rail mess was officially over, but this absence makes her gut twist—visions of Donna being led away in handcuffs flash through her mind, though she mentally swats them away.

Harvey wouldn’t let anything like that happen.

“She probably just had an appointment or something,” Rachel adds.

“Yeah.” Mike nods slowly. “Yeah, you’re right. Sorry, all the Evan Smith stuff kinda made me panic without thinking for a second. I’m sure you’re right.”

He heads out of her office, and Rachel forces herself back on task. That goes out the window ten minutes later when she notices Donna pass by with an armful of files. Exhaling in relief, Rachel jumps up from her chair and quickly catches up with her.

“Hey, you’re here!” Rachel greets. “Mike didn’t see you at your desk earlier and we thought…” She doesn’t want to bring up the ugly Liberty Rail disaster if it’s well and truly over. “We were worried about you. How’s it going?”

Donna smiles and everything seems normal. “Great, you?”

Rachel throws out some non-committal answer and slows to a stop as Donna approaches Norma’s old desk...and then _sits_ at it. Her coat is slung over Norma’s old coat rack, her bag is at its base, and Donna’s purple water bottle with lemon slices floating in it is sitting beside Norma’s old monitor. Donna’s array of Post-It note pads are neatly organized in a row by the phone.

“Aren’t you done being Louis’ interim secretary?” Rachel asks, but something about the way Donna’s files and notepads and pens are spread out on the desk suggests permanence, and it makes her gut churn all over again.

Donna doesn’t look up when she says casually, “I’m Louis’s Girl Friday now.”

“ _What?_ Like, full-time?”

“Mmhm.” Donna starts typing, as if this is not one of the most earth-shattering things Rachel has ever heard.

“Donna, what…what did…did something...” Rachel sputters. “Does Harvey know?”

“Of course he knows,” Donna replies, her tone still infuriatingly airy.

Rachel stares at her, feeling like the balance of the entire firm has been upset. Harvey and Donna are a unit—they’re _the_ unit. Their seamless working relationship is literally the envy of the office, and, to hear other people tell it, they’ve been that way since they started at the firm together over a decade ago. Rachel can’t think of a single reason why that would have changed, _especially_ after Harvey just risked everything to keep Donna out of prison.

“Stop gaping at me, Rachel,” Donna says, still without looking up from her computer. “If you don’t need anything, I have things to do.”

“Um, I think you need to tell me what happened.”

“I don’t have time to discuss personal issues right now.” Donna collects a stack of folders into her arms and vacates her desk in hurry.

Rachel raises her eyebrows, surprised as Donna’s avoidance. _Well, we certainly had all the time to discuss_ my _personal issues when_ you _want to_. She’s not about to let Donna off the hook that easily, though, so she trails after her again. Before they get too far, she snags Donna’s elbow and steers her sharply into the nearest storage closet.

“ _Ow_ , what the hell,” Donna snaps, banging against a shelf packed with printer paper.

“Donna,” Rachel says gently, despite manhandling her friend. “You can talk to me—you _know_ you can talk to me. I told you about Mike and Logan and everything in between. Whatever Harvey did, or you did, or whatever, you can tell me. Why are you working for Louis now?”

Donna sighs heavily, and it’s a few seconds before she can seem to find the words to speak, or perhaps the strength to say them at all.

“He said he loved me,” she murmurs, like it hurts to say it out loud.

“What?” Rachel blinks. Of all the things she expected to hear—something to do with Forstman or Liberty Rail or even Norma’s death—this is absolutely not one of them.

Donna fiddles with the edges of the files in her arms and dredges up another sigh. “He said that he _loved_ me, Rachel. He came over and we had wine, and everything was normal, and then he just...dropped it like a grenade and went home.”

Rachel tries to rally her thoughts. “Okay… You’re going to have to help me with this one. How is that bad? Don’t you…?”

“I do,” Donna admits quietly.

“Then why…”

“Because it was real, and then he…” Donna shakes her head and falls quiet. Rachel waits her out. “He tried to tell me that it was supposed to make _me_ feel better. And then _he_ tried to tell _me_ that things didn’t need to change, even if he did mean it. That we have everything already.”

“Donna…” Rachel reaches out her gives Donna’s arm a comforting squeeze. She knows Harvey can be an absolute dick sometimes, and she only knows a fraction of the history between Harvey and Donna, but this sounds especially cruel, even for him. “Doesn’t he know that you…?”

She shrugs. “Yeah. But it doesn’t matter. I’m tired, Rachel.” Donna sighs again. “I’m tired of doing everything I can to maintain what we have, and then getting thrown off a cliff with his backpedalling bullshit.”

Rachel desperately wants to give Donna some sort of advice or reassurance. _Maybe Harvey can’t handle things changing. Maybe he’s too terrified of losing you to admit it. Maybe you just have to talk to him…_ But Rachel doesn’t know if any of that’s true—Donna would, and Donna already left him.

“I thought you didn’t want anything to change between you guys,” Rachel says.

“I thought I didn’t, too.” Donna’s eyes shimmer. “That’s the worst part, isn’t it? I needed everything to stay the same, just as much as he did. But I can’t... _sit there_ and not…”

She gives her head a shake and pushes on a shaky, hollow sort of smile. “Anyways, it doesn’t matter. Harvey doesn’t need me, and Louis does. So I’m working for Louis now.”

“Donna, I’m sure…” Rachel starts, intending to promise that Harvey _does_ need her. She’s pretty sure Harvey can’t make it one day without Donna, in any capacity.

Plus, Rachel’s seen how they are together—the way he almost broke apart the whole damn company, and Evan Smith’s firm, to save Donna. If Rachel were a betting woman, she’d bet that that the very reason Harvey tried to erase an accidental love confession is _exactly_ because he needs Donna so desperately that he can’t bear to change a single thing about their relationship.

But she doesn’t finish the thought, because Donna frankly deserves better. If Harvey can’t be there for her the way Donna is for him—and has always, _always_ been there for him—then she _should_ walk away.

“I’m so sorry,” she says instead and gives Donna a hug, trying not to squash the files she’s still holding. “Maybe if you just talk to him…?”

“Thanks, Rachel.” Donna pulls back. “But I’m done talking.”

 

~

 

Mike reports back to her by quarter after eleven that Harvey is being stubbornly tight-lipped about the whole thing.

“Did he say _anything?"_ Rachel asks.

Mike plops down in the chair in front of her desk. “He said he doesn’t own her—she can do what she wants—and that he has no intention of talking to her anytime soon. If she wants to talk, she can come to him. And he says that she’ll come back to him sooner or later, so he’ll just wait.”

Rachel rolls her eyes and summarizes her conversation with Donna for him, speaking softly, even though her door is closed. Mike’s eyes widen and he leans back in the chair, raking his fingers through his hair.

“Shit,” he mumbles.

“Yeah.” Rachel absently wiggles her pen between her fingers.

“It feels all wrong—it feels wrong, right?” He shakes his head. “I don’t think Harvey can function without Donna. He apparently already missed two meetings—just today.”

“Well, Donna’s _Donna,_ and she can function anywhere, but…” Rachel chews her lip.

“It’ll probably blow over,” Mike says tentatively. “They’ll figure it out. Right?”

“Yeah,” she agrees hesitantly. “Maybe. I don’t think they can stay mad forever. They love each other.”

Except she and Mike both know exactly how stubborn both of them can be, and Rachel wonders if maybe they _can_ stay mad forever. This isn’t something undone by apology coffees, and she doesn’t see how things can be repaired. Not unless Harvey uses his words and plucks up some emotional courage—literally impossible, as far as Rachel is aware—and Donna is ready to settle for the status quo again, which she shouldn’t have to.

Rachel drops her pen and shakes her head.

Mike meets her eyes, and he’s as worried as she is that their best friends won’t get through this.

 

~

 

After a month, the fight has not blown over in the slightest.

Harvey remains constantly on edge and has taken on twice his typical workload, so he’s out of the office as much as possible, buzzing from meeting to meeting and trial to trial. He fires three successive temps over trivial issues and only keeps the fourth after Jessica issues an ultimatum.

His only conversations with Donna—if they can be called “conversations”—pertain to Louis, or more accurately Louis’ cases, and his tone is always dead flat. He also yells at Mike more, especially after a client asks where Harvey’s wonderful right-hand lady is.

Donna, in Rachel’s opinion, might be making things worse by acting as though nothing has happened at all. She continues to be outstanding, except now she’s amazing for Louis instead of Harvey. She acts breezy and confident, though Rachel suspects Donna is hurting and just refusing to show it. She’s caught her staring in the mirror in the women’s bathroom more than once, with shining eyes and a clenched jaw like she’s willing herself not to cry. The times she’s noticed Rachel, though, she’s brushed it off as nothing.

Donna also won’t talk to Rachel about what happened any further, and Harvey won’t confide in Mike at all. So somehow, this turns Rachel and Mike into go-betweens for Harvey and Donna so they can interact with each other as little as humanly possible.

Harvey’s latest temp, Tracy, is more competent than the rest and she even manages to mostly stay on top of Harvey’s grueling schedule. But she’s no Donna—she’s not half a Donna, if Rachel’s being honest. Then again, no one is. Rachel goes out of her way to help Tracy, if only so Harvey will piss on her a little bit less.

 

~

 

One afternoon, Mike comes into Rachel’s office with the Maxwell deposition. “Harvey asked me to give these to Donna after you proof them. Actually, he mostly yelled that, then chewed me out over some minor thing and told me to get my ass in gear. And _then_ he made Tracy cry...again. Anyways. Here.”

Rachel sighs. “This is getting ridiculous.”

“ _Getting?_ ” Mike snorts. “This is our new life. My best friend has disappeared into a raging, fiery tower of bottomless angst and anger, and he’s fine taking us all down with him.”

“They can’t seriously do this forever—they _love_ each other,” Rachel says, trying not to whine, but she’s been saying this same thing for weeks. She wants to be supportive for as long as it takes for them to work things out, but she’s tired of watching two people in love give each other the coldest of shoulders. She’s tired of Harvey taking his crap out on Mike and tired of Donna being the Queen of Avoidance.

She’s tired of watching them hurting.

Mike shrugs. “I don’t think there’s anything we can do, Rach. Much as I’d like to. We just have to...keep going and hope they’ll cool off. It’s not like we can force them to talk to each other.”

“Yeah,” says Rachel absently. She frowns down at the Maxwell deposition, her thoughts a few offices away.

 

~

 

Though Rachel doesn’t think Louis is being smug on purpose—most of the time—he practically struts around the office these days, beaming like he’s won a million dollars. Harvey’s eyes get dark every time they’re in the same room, and he always looks like he’s about half a breath away from punching Louis’ teeth through his skull. Louis, meanwhile, brags endlessly about how much better Donna is than Norma, and _he’s_ probably about half a breath away from literally kissing the ground Donna walks on any given day.

“You _need_ to tone down the Donna love,” Rachel finally tells him at the copy machine one day, about six weeks after the whole mess started.

“Why should I? She’s perfect and everyone knows it— _I_ know it, and I can’t help being ecstatic.” He smooths his hands down his suit, grinning. “ _I_ know that I cherish and support her like Harvey never did, and she’s the best damn secretary on the planet. So yeah, I love her, what can I say?”

Rachel sighs. “But you _know_ something awful happened between her and Harvey…”

Louis’ grin is instantly replaced by a glare. “So you’re saying Donna only came to work for me because Harvey screwed up? Really, Rachel? Not because I delivered an incredibly genuine, heartfelt speech which convinced her that I actually appreciate her more than anyone alive? That she actually _wanted_ to work for me, not only in my incredible time of need, but beyond?”

“Louis, I didn’t mean—”

“We have a _bond_ , Rachel. Do you think so little of me? And of _Donna?"_ He shakes his head, frowning deeply. “Shame, Rachel. Shame.”

He stalks out of the file room and Rachel smothers an exasperated sigh.

 

~

 

By the end of the second month, Rachel can’t stand the tension.

She isn’t the only one thrown off by Harvey and Donna’s work-breakup—basically everyone is gritting their teeth under Louis’ euphoric rapture about it. But it bothers her the most, she concludes, because they’re her closest friends.

Donna talks to her less than ever, and Harvey isn’t talking to her at all, as though she were somehow partly the cause of the rift. Mike’s developed deep bags under his eyes while trying to keep up with Harvey, and he’s only been coming home for a maximum of two hours at a time to sleep and shower before rushing back to the office in a fresh suit—if he comes home at all.

Rachel has had _enough_ and makes it her personal mission to reunite Harvey and Donna, somehow.

 

~

 

For once, Mike is actually in the apartment, while Rachel makes coffee for both of them. She marches to the bathroom while he’s brushing his teeth.

“Okay, we’re fixing this.” She crosses her arms over her chest.

Mike rinses his mouth out. “How?”

She loves that he doesn’t even have to ask what she’s talking about.

Rachel smiles. “Remember how you said we can’t force them to talk?”

“Yeah?”

“I think we can, actually.” Her smile grows. “With some good, ol’ fashioned confined space.”

“Do you think that’ll work?” He pats his face with the blue towel by the mirror.

“We’re gonna find out,” she says. She doesn’t add that she was inspired by _How I Met Your Mother_ reruns last night.

Mike frowns a little.

“What?”

“It’s just...what if this is something that talking can’t solve?” He meets her eyes in the mirror and her stomach clenches. She knows he’s thinking of the whole Logan thing, and he has a point.

“I think this is different,” she finally says. “And...I think it can’t make things worse.”

“True.” He nods and turns to the mirror to fuss with his hair.

“Just get Harvey in the file room at eight tomorrow night, after most of the staff has left,” she instructs. “I’ll take care of the rest.”

Mike fights off a grin.

“What?”

“The look in your eye right now makes you look like a super-villain,” he says with a chuckle. “Very hot.”

Rachel smiles back and grabs their travel mugs from the kitchen counter.

 

~

 

Rachel spends most of that day and part of the next setting up her plan. Donna, supernaturally observant most of the time, doesn’t clue into the fact that Rachel is up to something, which in turn makes Rachel more determined to follow through—Harvey’s Donna would have noticed. Louis’s Donna is still pretending as hard as she can that she isn’t nursing a broken heart.

In the late afternoon, Louis heads out early for a dentist appointment, which gives Rachel the perfect opportunity to require Donna’s help on an ancient case that Rachel had pulled out of the archives specifically for this purpose.

“That case is six years old,” says Donna skeptically. “Why are you looking into it?”

“Harvey asked me to,” Rachel replies breezily. As expected, Donna stiffens and doesn’t bother asking more questions, as she would have once. Rachel leads the way to the file room, and keeps her expression neutral.

She’s very good at feigning frustration that they can’t find the right file, she thinks, even after sifting through box after box of archives. The file they “need,” of course, is already in the bottom drawer of Rachel’s desk, where she buried it this morning.

Donna huffs. “Honestly, it doesn’t matter how many times I reorganize stuff in here, people _always_ manage to screw it all up and misfile things. Why do I even bother?”

Rachel checks her watch. “I’m going to go get something from the vending machine. You want anything?”

“No, I’m good.” Donna pushes her hair out of her eyes and pulls down another box.

“Okay, I’ll be right back.” Rachel leaves, closing the door behind her. She feels kinda guilty about lying to Donna and wasting her time, but it’ll be more than worth it if her plan works.

She tucks herself around the corner, just out of sight of the file room. She only has to wait a minute or two before Mike arrives right on schedule, ranting about something with the copier. Harvey, just behind him, looks stormy and irritable, but Rachel can’t tell if Mike’s the cause or not. Harvey’s looked that way for the last two months straight, after all.

Mike opens the door and gestures Harvey inside. He makes to follow, but instead closes the door and swiftly locks it. Rachel can’t help a mischievous smile as she joins him and he pockets the key.

Harvey immediately bangs on the door. “Mike, what the hell?” he barks.

“Ah, sorry, I don’t know what happened!” Mike calls back and Rachel has to cover her mouth with both hands to stifle her giggles. “The door closed and I can’t open it!” He jiggles the knob. “I think the lock is broken!”

Harvey tries the knob himself on the inside, and lets out a string of curses. He bangs his fist on the door again.

“Mike, open the damn door or you’re fired!”

“I’ll go get Security!” Mike yells and then he, too, has to stifle his laughter as soon as he’s away from the door.

“Mike, I _swear to God_ —”

“Harvey?” comes Donna’s voice, and Rachel bites her lip. “Oh, for fuck’s sake— _RACHEL!”_

“You guys talk—we’ll be back soon!” Rachel calls. She motions for Mike to move away from the door and they hastily retreat, ignoring the immediate shouting and swearing and threats coming from the file room.

“He’s going to murder us,” says Mike, settling onto the break room couch.

“Not if _she_ murders us first,” Rachel counters.

“Well, at least they’ll finally agree on something.”

Mike exhales and shoves his hands through his hair, making it stick up funny. Rachel sits down beside him and laces her fingers through his.

“How’d you get the lock changed?” he asks.

Rachel shrugs. That had taken more than a little effort—the janitor hadn’t been keen on making the door inoperable from the inside for safety reasons.

“I had to promise Larry it was only for one night,” she explains. “I _may_ have implied it was a secret, office-wide prank on Louis. I may have also promised him cake.” She smiles and Mike chuckles.

They fall quiet for a moment and then Mike wonders, “You really think they’ll open up to each other?”

Rachel shrugs again. “They will once they’ve had some alcohol. I left a bottle of Jack on the table.”

“Harvey won’t drink that cheap stuff.”

“He will when he realizes he’s locked in a file room for the night.” Rachel can’t suppress another mischievous grin. “I may have also let Security in on the prank, and Jim promised they won’t come up here until I tell them it’s over.”

Mike raises his eyebrow. “You are diabolical, woman.”

“Thanks.” Rachel laughs and looks down at her and Mike’s joined hands. “I just hope it works.”

 

~

 

She sneaks out to check on them about an hour later, and hears dual raised voices, indistinct but angry. She bites her lip, telling herself not to eavesdrop, but she tiptoes closer anyway.

“...I’d drink to that,” Harvey’s saying, but he sounds bitter.

“Of course you would,” Donna bites back. “Anything to avoid the real problem at hand, as usual.”

“And what _is_ the problem, Donna? Enlighten me, please.”

There’s a shuffling noise of shoes crossing the floor.

“My God, Harvey!” Donna says, full of frustration and exasperation. “I can’t keep spelling this out for you—”

“Why the hell not?” Harvey retorts. Rachel hears a clunk of a glass slammed on a table. “I can’t read your mind as easily you think you can read mine.”

“If I could read your mind, Harvey, we wouldn’t even be here. This is your—”

“No way, don’t try to put this all on me—you haven’t been talking to me, either. You blew up on me, and you went to _Louis_.” Harvey spits his name like it’s something gross on his tongue, and the argument ramps up, the pair of them firing back and forth, talking over the other and Rachel strains to make out everything they’re saying.

“I _blew up_? Of course I _blew up_. I’m not going back to the same ol’, same ol’. I’m done, Harvey—”

“Just like that? This many years and you’re just up and done?”

“You can’t demand to keep things friendly and then declare you love me, or worse, casually drop that into a conversation after dinner like it’s no big deal—”

“I didn’t _casually_ drop—”

“Yes, you _goddamn_ did,” Donna snaps. “You can’t _say_ that and mean it and expect me to just be completely fine.”

“You’re _always_ completely fine! _We’re_ always completely fine! There’s no reason why—”

“Not this time! It’s not fine, and that’s what I’m _trying_ to say. You can’t _do_ that, not to me—”

“I only did it because I can’t _live_ without you!” Harvey bellows. “And I don’t...damn it, Donna, I can’t…”

“Harvey,” Donna says, her voice softer than before. “Did it ever occur to you that maybe I can’t live without you, either?”

They fall quiet. Rachel holds her breath and suddenly remembers that these are her friends and she’s totally eavesdropping on them. How would she feel if they listened on her and Mike fighting? She backs up the hallway as quietly as she can, wincing and flushed the whole way.

“Well?” says Mike, when she slides into the break room.

“Um, well...they’re talking. Technically.”

About an hour after that, she and Mike go together, and the hallway is suspiciously quiet.

“Do you think they fell asleep...or killed each other?” Mike whispers.

Rachel smacks his arm, but can’t help feeling nervous as they approach the door. _What if they’re opposite corners, and I really did find a way to make things worse?_

Mike gently knocks on the door. “Harvey? Donna?”

“We, uh, we’re back with a key?” says Rachel tentatively. _Please God, tell me I didn’t make it worse._

Mike shoots her a worried look and unlocks the door. Rachel braces herself—though for what, exactly, she’s not sure. They walk inside to find Harvey and Donna at the very back, sitting side by side on the floor with the empty bottle of Jack between them. Harvey’s tie is missing, his shirt is undone; Donna’s high heels are gone and her hair’s a mess. They glare in unison at Mike and Rachel.

“Hello, traitors,” Donna slurs.

“Cute,” says Harvey. “You’re both fired.” He goes to stand up and almost falls over, so Mike rushes to help him up. Despite cursing him out and scowling a lot, Harvey lets him.

Rachel goes to Donna’s side and gets her up on unsteady feet. “I’m sorry—none of us could take it anymore.” She leads Donna out of the file room, Harvey and Mike behind them.

“The Jack was a nice...touch,” says Donna. “I’ve never drank that much, that fast, in one sitting. Well, not since college.”

Harvey tries to smother a laugh.

“Okay, and that _other_ night...but you’re sworn to secrecy, mister, even if you are drunk as hell, too,” Donna jabs her finger at his chest and then they’re both laughing. They come to a stop by the worktables, and Rachel eases Donna into one of the chairs.

Rachel glances hopefully between Harvey and Donna, who are actually _smiling_ at each other, and Mike starts to grin before Harvey glares.

“Don’t look so happy with yourselves,” he bites out. “You’re both very, very fired, and paying for my cab ride home, _and_ explaining to Raj why he had to wait around so late.”

“Yeah, actually,” says Mike, wincing. “I sent Raj home hours ago.”

Harvey scowls again. “You’re still fired.” He flops into a chair as well, rubbing his hand over his face.

“But you’re talking again? Right?” Rachel asks, trying not to hold her breath, or at least trying not to _look_ like she’s holding her breath. “That’s really all we...um…”

Harvey looks at Donna, and his expression goes uncharacteristically soft. Her eyes are a bit bleary, her smile small, but she can’t seem to stop watching Harvey, either.

“Yeah,” Harvey mumbles. “We’re talking.”

Rachel is _dying_ to know every single thing that happened in the file room, but she’ll probably have to wait until they’re sober and less irritated at her. Donna will spill once she’s forgiven Rachel, and they both know it. She bites her lips to stop herself from grinning with triumph and instead she settles for shooting Mike an excited glance.

They help Harvey and Donna into separate cabs, and they close up the office for the night, grinning like idiots the whole time.

 

~

 

The next morning, Donna is not at her desk outside of Harvey’s office and Rachel can’t help feeling a little bit disappointed. Logically, she knows that Donna can’t switch back without working things out with Louis first, but she’d somehow still been hoping to see things magically back to normal.

“Rachel?” Harvey passes her on his way into his office. “Didn’t I fire you last night? I recall firing you at least four times.”

“I think it was more like twelve by the time the cab drove away,” she says, following him.

“And yet, here you are.” He plops into his chair and downs a cloudy drink on his desk. It hisses softly and Rachel’s pretty sure it’s several Alka-Seltzers for the hangover Harvey must have. She doesn’t feel guilty enough to be sorry.

“Here I am.”

Harvey glares. “I fired Mike too,” he says flatly.

“Also probably about twelve times. Maybe thirteen.” Rachel clutches her hand tight around her purse strap, trying to get a read on Harvey’s mood and failing. “He’s getting you a coffee?” she adds hopefully.

Harvey grunts and shuffles the papers on his desk.

Rachel waits, unsure if she’s been dismissed, if Harvey is now pissed at her, or if he has something else to say. When she takes a hesitant step back, he finally speaks.

“Rachel?”

“Yes?”

He levels his gaze at her. “You ever pull some shit like that again, you really will be fired.”

Her face flushes hot. “Understood.” She turns on her heel and makes to rush out of his office—she’s still not sorry, but she’s definitely guiltier now. Maybe confined space wasn’t a good idea after all.

“ _Rachel._ ”

She stops in the doorway and braces herself before facing him again. He’s no longer stony and unreadable, however—instead, he’s got a faint smile and his posture is relaxed, expression soft.

“Thank you,” he says quietly, earnestly.

Rachel sucks in a hopeful breath. “We’re good? You’re good?”

“We’re good.” The faint smile grows and his eyes crinkle.

She bites her lip and hurries out of his office, fighting off a grin. Donna rounds the corner and Rachel can see the difference in friend immediately—she’s Donna again, Harvey’s Donna, with her chin up and a warm fire burning in her eyes.

“Good _morning_ , Rachel,” she greets and winks at Rachel.

“Good morning, _Donna_ ,” Rachel says in return. Before she takes another step, Donna snags her arm and pulls her into a quick, tight hug.

“Part of me wants to murder you and the other part of me wants to marry you,” she murmurs.

Rachel snorts. “That’ll be a bit awkward either way, don’t you think?”

Donna releases her and smiles. Her eyes might be shining a bit more than usual, and maybe so are Rachel’s, but they both blink quickly to save their mascara.

“Details at lunch,” says Donna, giving Rachel’s arm a quick squeeze, before heading away.

Rachel chuckles and, feeling better than she has in weeks, steps into her office. She’s only just sat down when Louis barrels by, shouting, arms pumping at his sides.

“ _Son of a goddamn bitch!”_

 

**-end-**


End file.
